Daniell Cell - Bird's Cell

Bird's Cell

Originally, the Daniell cell held the two solutions in two separate, but linked, containers, an arrangement described as two half-cells. The first single-cell version of the Daniell cell was invented in 1837 by the Guy's hospital physician Golding Bird who used a plaster of Paris barrier to keep the solutions separate. Bird's experiments with this cell were of some importance to the new discipline of electrometallurgy. A surprising result from Bird's experiments was the deposition of copper on and within the plaster without any contact with the metal electrodes. So surprising, in fact, that it was at first disbelieved by electrochemical investigators, including Michael Faraday. Deposition of copper, and other metals, had been previously noted, but always previously it had been metal on metal electrode. Bird's cell was the basis for the development of the porous pot cell.